In 1440， a German goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg came up with an invention that would change history. By using movable type to reproduce a copy of the Bible on what he came to call a printing press， Gutenberg gave us a way to create books en masse.

1440年，一個(gè)叫約翰尼斯#8226;古騰堡的德國(guó)金匠提出了一個(gè)改變世界的發(fā)明。他使用活字印刷機(jī)印刷了《圣經(jīng)》，并給我們指明了為大眾創(chuàng)造書籍的明路。

For 560 years， the book has ruled the roost as humanity's favourite invention. It's portable， reliable， can run without batteries， and doesn't require a 200-page user manual to operate. In fact， as designs go， the common-or-garden codex is about as perfect as you're ever going to get. We take pleasure in the shape， the feel， the smell of a good book. They take us to other worlds， other lives， and other ways of thinking. Humanity today would be nothing without the book.

560年來，書籍成為了最受人類喜愛的發(fā)明。它便攜、可靠、不受任何限制也不需要使用說明。實(shí)際上，隨著設(shè)計(jì)創(chuàng)新的發(fā)展，平凡的書籍將變得越來越完美。閱讀一本好書，我們會(huì)因其設(shè)計(jì)、手感和香味而神魂顛倒。書籍引領(lǐng)我們進(jìn)入其它世界、體驗(yàn)其它生命并讓我們換位思考。沒有書籍，人類將一無是處。

So when Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos declares that he can improve upon this most revered of innovations， you'd be excused for being somewhat sceptical. Until， of course， he shows you the Amazon Kindle.

因此當(dāng)亞馬遜的執(zhí)行總裁杰夫#8226;貝佐斯聲稱他將改善這個(gè)最讓人肅然起敬的發(fā)明時(shí)，你持懷疑態(tài)度也是情有可原的。當(dāng)然，直到他向你展示亞馬遜Kindle為止。

The Kindle itself is a 10.3-ounce， paperback-sized electronic reader， designed to resemble a real book as much as humanly possible. Ergonomic design and neatly arranged keyboard and \"next/previous page\" buttons make it easy to hold and use， while the screen's top-of-the-range EINK technology makes it perfectly legible， even in bright sunlight. With the capacity to store over 200 books on its internal memory alone (more， of course， can be added through use of a memory card) and a battery life in excess of thirty hours， the Kindle sounds ideal for anyone who， for example， has spent 44 hours on a train from Changchun to Xi'an， sat through a 13-hour flight from London to Beijing， or even taken an hour's ride on the Beijing subway.

Kindle重10.3盎司（相當(dāng)于292克），是平裝本書籍大小的電子閱讀器，樣式仿造真正的書籍。人機(jī)設(shè)計(jì)的外形和整潔的鍵盤以及“下/上一頁(yè)”按鍵讓該閱讀器易拿易操作，而屏幕采用的EINK技術(shù)讓閱讀變得完美無缺，即使在強(qiáng)光下，眼睛也不會(huì)疲勞。該電子閱讀器的內(nèi)存容納了200多本書（要是用記憶卡的話還能容納更多的書），電池可連續(xù)使用30小時(shí)以上，如果你要花44小時(shí)在從長(zhǎng)春到西安的火車上，或者花13小時(shí)在從倫敦到北京的飛機(jī)上或者是坐一個(gè)小時(shí)的北京地鐵，那么Kindle對(duì)你來說可是很理想啊。

But the Kindle's most lauded feature is it's Whispernet connection. Using the same high-speed data network as the most advanced modern cell phones， Kindle offers users the chance to buy any available book – for cheaper than the price of a standard paperback – and have it delivered to the reader in under a minute， without even having to be anywhere near a computer. Because， you see， the Kindle is completely wireless – it has a built-in link to the Kindle shop， where readers can purchase anything from the latest best-sellers to today's issue of the Wall Street Journal. Monthly subscriptions allow Kindle users to get the latest magazines and updates from the most popular blogs sent directly to them.

不過，Kindle最為人稱道的還是其Whispernet連接服務(wù)。就如最先進(jìn)的手機(jī)一樣，Kindle利用同樣高速的數(shù)據(jù)網(wǎng)絡(luò)為用戶提供了購(gòu)買圖書的機(jī)會(huì)——但價(jià)格比普通的要便宜——而且一分鐘之內(nèi)就能傳給用戶，你甚至不用靠近電腦。因?yàn)?，Kindle是無線的，但它內(nèi)置了和Kindle商店的連接，這樣讀者就能購(gòu)買到最新的暢銷書和剛出版的《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》了。如果是月訂戶的話，用戶還可直接閱讀最新的雜志和最受歡迎的博客。

In short， is there ANYTHING the Kindle can do wrong?

簡(jiǎn)言之，Kindle會(huì)有什么不足嗎？

Well… yes， there is， to be fair. The way the buttons are arranged make it almost impossible to pick up the Kindle without inadvertently flipping through a dozen pages. The fact that everything must come from the Kindle store means that PDFs and other document types are unreadable – although Kindle does offer a service which translates the users Word documents into Kindle pages for a small fee. And last but not least， the whopping US$399 (approx. 2800RMB) price tag is a lot of money to shell out.

當(dāng)然，公平地說，Kindle的按鍵設(shè)計(jì)很容易就會(huì)使你不經(jīng)意地跳過很多頁(yè)內(nèi)容。而所有的相關(guān)產(chǎn)品也必須從Kindle商店購(gòu)買，這就意味著PDF和其它類型的文件是不可能在該機(jī)器上閱讀的，雖然Kindle也提供將Word文檔轉(zhuǎn)變成Kindle頁(yè)面的收費(fèi)服務(wù)。最后也是最重要的一點(diǎn)是，399美元（相當(dāng)于2800人民幣）實(shí)在是太貴了。

Unless you're a dedicated first-generation early adopter， the Kindle is probably something to put off for now -Amazon currently only sells and supports the Kindle within the United States， though plans are in place to slowly expand the network， and the whopping price tag will probably be cut in half by the end of 2008. Your best bet is probably to wait for a later edition， which will be cheaper， have the bugs ironed out， and be supported the world over.

另外，除非你是新品購(gòu)買狂，要不你還是放棄Kindle吧。雖然亞馬遜也有緩慢地?cái)U(kuò)大銷售網(wǎng)的計(jì)劃，價(jià)格也會(huì)在2008年底減一半，但目前亞馬遜只在美國(guó)國(guó)內(nèi)銷售支持kindle。最好的辦法可能要算等待以后的新版本了，那時(shí)價(jià)格會(huì)更便宜，功能更齊全，也會(huì)在世界范圍內(nèi)銷售。

The Kindle， as it stands now， isn't going to replace the book. But it does herald the dawning of a new age， an age in which our favourite analogue reading device may find itself phased out， in favour of electronic， permanently-connected e-readers such as this. The day the book finally passes into the annals of history will be a very， very sad day indeed.

就目前的情況來看，Kindle還不能取代書籍。但是它確實(shí)把我們帶入了一個(gè)新時(shí)代，屆時(shí)，我們最喜歡的閱讀工具也許會(huì)被淘汰，轉(zhuǎn)而愛上類似Kindle、能夠和電子讀物讀者們永遠(yuǎn)聯(lián)系在一起的電子閱讀器。但是，一旦書籍最終成為歷史，那將是非常讓人遺憾的時(shí)刻。